


BONKAI TO FANFIC TROPES: You Bring Good to My Lonely Life

by donutworry



Series: Bonkai Done to Fanfiction Tropes [2]
Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid Fusion, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 10:11:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11011311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutworry/pseuds/donutworry
Summary: There is magic, beneath the surface. || Tropes: Fairy Tale AU (“The Little Mermaid” - H. C. Anderson ( NOT Disney)), Folklore and Mythology AU (Ireland’s selkie-men mythos) ||





	BONKAI TO FANFIC TROPES: You Bring Good to My Lonely Life

**Author's Note:**

> NOTES: Title from the song “Prisoner” by The Weeknd and Lana Del Rey. Kai’s song is Ed Sheeran’s version of “Parting Glass”, but if you’re good at imagining Chris’s singing voice, his fits very well too. Also, it’s the ending of Assassin’s Creed 4 and is incredibly appropriate for the atmosphere of this fic. 3-parter.
> 
> TWs: Sex. Angst, as per usual. Arranged marriage. Homewrecker Kai. Cheating Bonnie. Character death (pero, it’s a little mermaid au so...)

 

**_[part one: the storm & the curse]_ **

They have to take a speedboat out to  _ Dearest Ophelia _ because the water in the port is too shallow for the ship to come any closer. Bonnie is already sick of transferring between modes of transportation. In the last hour, she’s gone from being in a plane to being in a car to being in the speedboat, which in minutes she will leave for the ship.

And then she’ll leave the ship for new life that she’s sure she’ll hate.

_ Dearest Ophelia _ is an older, wooden ship, the kind that creaks with every rock of water against its rickety frame. It’s the only kind of vessel the St. Johns will let anywhere near their little island of solitude, untrusting of the technology of the newer ships employ if it’s not one of their own. Bonnie is not one of their own and trust is not a well-funded commodity between the hunters and the Bennetts.

That’s set to change. In order to forge a peace between the St. Johns, self-appointed archivists and police of the supernatural world, Bonnie has married the only son of Dalton St. John, Lorenzo, in some old world arranged marriage fuckery. The patriarch of The Armory was the one to suggest it, spouting something about family ties being stronger than an armistice. Unfortunately for Bonnie, her own matriarch agreed.

So here she is, shipped off like a postal package for a man she’s only met once - the day of their wedding -and has no idea what to expect from. It’s her duty as a Bennett witch to protect the supernatural from encroaching threats, but she never expected her personal life to be a casualty of that duty.

As they pull up to  _ Dearest Ophelia _ , a sinking feeling grows in Bonnie’s intestines and she looks out over the sea she will soon be crossing. The horizon is bright and harsh on her eyes.

**-o0o-**

An accursed ship pollutes his waters and he sighs, feeling burdened. Kai had been sunning himself in his bare manskin when he noticed  _ Dearest Ophelia _ breaching his purified waters with its cursed wood. It had been a dreadfully annoying thing to see. He needs to escort it, lest its misfortune spreads.

What a pity - he had been seeking a friend. He’d grown hungry for the companionship that comes from consuming another, but now he has to tend to his court unless he wants to deal with the fallout of the old ship’s curse. Donning his pelt, he slips easily into the salt-water’s cold embrace, feeling eased of his ire almost immediately.

He swims a few lazy laps under the ship, waiting for it to leave. A speedboat cruises up to it, making him anticipatory and impatient and he comes up to observe the passengers, breaching the surface to finally take a breath.

It’s then that he sees her, dark curls gleaming under the sun. She’s small, but her body is svelte and curvy, the kind he would normally love to get his hands on. But something about her - her pretty face, her melancholic green eyes, the rich power resting beneath her skin - leaves him thunderstruck.

Kai hates her with a hence unknown fury instantaneously.

There is a moment of insanity when he considers abandoning the ship, even though he knows he shouldn’t. But roanes have good instincts and she will be his ruin, he knows it.

He can see his end written all over the little witch’s pretty face.

**-o0o-**

The sun had barely breached the skies, but Bonnie had already been awake for hours. She wonders at the isolation the St. Johns fortify themselves with - it’s only been a day into the final leg of her journey, but already she’s starting to feel lonely. She can only hope that being around other people will alleviate the feeling when she reaches the island. Casting her eyes out on the water, the bored witch takes in the scenery: how beautiful the water looks reflecting the rising sun and the pod of dolphins breaking the surface in their own migration. If she’ll like anything about moving to the island, it will be learning to entwine with nature in a new way.

Bonnie continues to watch the dolphins, free in a way she was not, her stare becoming one a thousand yards long. It’s not until the captain steps up beside her and speaks that she returns to herself.

“Ah, poor thing. The roane’s got that young one in his sights.”

“Roane?” Bonnie asks, straightening up.

“Mhmm,” the captain answers, pointing out at the water. “That shadow that’s got the pod so jumpy. He’s the prince of these cold waters, so we call him a roane.”

Following to where he points, Bonnie watches as something dark speeds past a small dolphin, a baby, herding it off from the crowd. She sits up straighter, both anxious for the young mammal and anticipating seeing the natural predatory chain in action.

It takes longer than she thinks it would, but it’s done with such finesse that she almost misses it. The dolphins are nervous, swimming in odd patterns to disway the predator they know is amongst them, but the creature itself appears and disappears almost like magic, separating his target from its parents so skillfully Bonnie thinks she blinked and the poor thing went from being a part of the pod to being alone. She grips the railing, leaning out to see better. Her mouth is dry and she swallows to assuage it. She wants to see this “roane”, to know what kind of creature it is.

When it happens, she frowns, not sure if what she’s seeing is right. The water becomes a bloody mess and she feels bad for the baby dolphin as much as she’s confused by what just killed it.

“Is that a seal? What kind of seal gets that big?”

The captain shrugs. “Strange, isn’t it? He’s a special one.” Bonnie nods. It was weird.

“Why do you call him a roane?” she queries.

“Because he’s magic,” the captain answers. “He follows us out every passage we make, and it’s always smooth sailing. Our kind, but brutal escort.”

He pats her on the back with a smile and leaves her to her thoughts. Bonnie looks thoughtfully back to the gory feast one last time before following after him to offer her help.

The day is long and the captain puts her to good work, the labor driving out thoughts of loneliness and her sense of loss. Another thought crowds out her melancholy, the image of snapping jaws and a leviathan body brutalizing the dead baby dolphin. She finds herself jealous of that stupid beast too. When she gets a signal, she looks up what kind of big seals eat meat on her phone and figures the roane must be a leopard seal. It was weird considering these waters were supposed to be too warm for those, but it was her best conclusion

That kind of freedom must be enthralling, she thinks. A freaking leopard seal, thriving and unlimited in a different environment. It was unnatural and a testament that even something so controlling as evolution had no sway on the freedom of that sea monster while she was confined by her social status and it’s sway over her people. Duty was as unnatural a shackle as the seal’s relocation was as unnatural a liberation. How quaint.

The day passes in relative ease and by nightfall, Bonnie is weary to the bone by the work she’s done to help the crew. Still, she finds sleep to be an elusive paramore and once more makes her way to the deck to look out over the calm ocean. She watches the waves, now an inverse of the sight it had been before - in the morning, it had sparkled and gleamed in the rising sun and now the dark water scatters the moonlight into prisms. Black and white. Yin and yang. It entrances her again.

The sea’s spell on her is broken by a dark, sleek body sluicing through the air briefly before disappearing back into the depths. Eyes darting after it, she tries to track the shadow as it moves through the dark. It’s a difficult task. The thing swims faster than what Bonnie expects and it’s too dark to be sure, but she thinks it’s the seal from this morning. Seeing a penguin would almost be less absurd.

“Escorting us for safe passage, huh?” she questions. The witch is unsure what to think of the information. Humans have the tendency of confusing real magic with anomalies, but they weren’t always wrong. “That’s very kind of you.”

She loses sight of the creature for a moment and then a point is breaking the surface of the water. Bonnie squints out at it, noting that a sleek head with dark eyes is watching the ship. Watching her. She suppresses a shiver.

“It must be nice to be you,” she murmurs. “You have more freedom than I can ever hope of having again.”

Gripping the railing, she folds over it with a heavy sigh. Tears threaten to form from her morose mood and she closes her eyes against them bitterly. This is for the best, she thinks. Do this little thing, try to find happiness in it, and no one else has to die.

Still though, the stubborn feeling batters her. It would be nice to have a choice in her own future. The tears crest between her closed eyes and begin to fall. She’s alone on the deck, so Bonnie doesn’t bother to hold them back, letting them drip from her face into the dark seas.

“I’m married,” Bonnie laments. “To my enemy. To someone I don’t even know, let alone love.”

She continues to cry softly, holding back her gasps so as to not disturb anyone else. “I’m leaving my home, and going into enemy territory in hopes that the arrangement will stop others from being killed. How archaic, right?”

An angry laugh mingles with her crying. Her tears continue to fall into the water. Until now, the witch never bothered to release the pent up emotions and now that they’ve leaked, it seems that damming them back again is an impossible task.

“I hate this,” she murmurs.

Bonnie opens her eyes, watching as one more tear falls from her face into the dark ocean. She wipes at her face with her sleeve and straightens up, heading back to her bunkard.

**-o0o-**

A seventh tear strikes the water, much to Kai’s dismay and when another doesn’t follow, he snarls. The summoning is complete then.

In his lifetime, he’s never had the misfortune of being summoned before and he can already feel his attention reorienting from escorting the cursed ship to the abhorrent woman riding it to her new home. Her lamentations had already been tempting to him, despite the unease she caused him, but at least then he had the choice of whether to seduce her or not.

There’s no choice now. He must go to her.

With an angry flourish, he swims off and kills the first thing he comes across. He doesn’t bother with it, leaving the body for the bottom feeders to scavenge. Some space needs to be between him and the cursed ship and it’s tiny passenger. He needs to move and hunt and kill to release the sudden flare of rage surging in his skin. The feeling of being trapped makes him want to destroy.

The sky crackles, but Kai doesn’t notice.

**-o0o-**

Thunder cracks the sky like a whip and the captain tsks at the noise. He turns to Bonnie, who’s still spooked right out of her skin from the loud noise. 

“You should go below,” he tells her. “Try to wait this out.”

Bonnie hesitates, looking to the sky. Some magic escort, she thinks. Something in her gut screams trouble at her, and she doesn’t want to leave just yet. But then the captain nudges her shoulder.

“Go on,” he urges her. “We’ll be fine, we’ve weathered worse.”

After another brief pause, Bonnie obeys. She doesn't want to be a hindrance to the working crewmen. Instead, she goes into her room and casts a circle, seeking safe passage.

She can't tell if the spell works or not. Her magic has been extremely wonky the past few days, the entire time she's been in the ship - she can't tell if it's because she has yet to really connect with this new natural environment or if it's as something about  _ Dearest Ophelia _ herself. The ship doesn't feel magicked to her, but again her own sense as a witch has been a little off.

After she closes the circle she lies down to try to rest, an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. The storm coming was going to bring more with it than she hopes to deal with.

**-o0o-**

His lapse in concentration comes to collect in the form of a single, mighty lightning bolt. Storms over the ocean rage harder than ones over land, the sea one giant, watery plain that fuels the rain clouds. This storm is angry, the lightning bolt striking  _ Dearest Ophelia _ immediately upon its landing. A price for Kai’s distraction.

The roane curses to himself and torpedos through the water towards the suddenly ablaze ship. He hates rickety, old, accursed buckets like  _ Dearest Ophelia _ , hopes to never get another ship like it in his waters again. Cursed ships bring death and he has no wish to ferry human souls today.

The wooden atrocity is in flames. He can see the humans running around the deck, hear the splashes of life rafts hitting the water. Kai’s head bobs over the surface, surveying. The tempest has blacked out the entire sky, the only light coming from the inflamed body of  _ Dearest Ophelia _ . There are screams filling the air and Kai swims around desperately, trying to make sure no stragglers were were being carted off by the storm-fueled undertows. The crew members were doing well in helping the few passengers onto the rafts and when Kai hears the “all clear” whoop through the air, he’s reprieved, wants to celebrate with the crew. No dead humans in his water tonight.

Until he realizes just how strongly the storm and the sea are tossing about both the rafts and the  _ Dearest Ophelia’s  _ dying skeleton. Waves push and pull the ship, tossing it to and fro while the howling winds shred it to pieces and it dawns on Kai that this particular weather won’t let up until the curse is fulfilled and  _ Dearest Ophelia  _ is wreckage at the bottom of the sea.

Along with the humans caught in the backlash of a curse long held at bay.

_ Fuck _ , he thinks. Kai’s furious with himself. This is his fault. His overwhelming distraction earlier in the day from the summons had caused a lapsed in his protection, his own magic compromised by his lack of focus. If he can’t help them, he’ll be shuttling lost souls to the crossover for days.

The song comes from somewhere deep in him, his chest, his belly, or his desperate heart, he wasn’t sure. It resonates in the water, suffusing the waves with magic older and more dangerous than he’ll ever understand, as the roane sings to calm the waters.

_ Listen to me _ , he wills into his song.  _ Don’t kill them. Take the ship, but leave the wretches be. _

The storm begins to calm, taking a moment to listen to the roane’s singing, to the magic he channels. The ocean begins to still, enjoying the magic as well, when Kai’s song is cut abruptly short and his attention, once more, wavers, sharply diverted to the figure that splashes below the surface and the demands of the summon to go to her.

Enraged at the jilt, nature resumes it’s anger more profoundly than ever and the celebratory shouts from earlier become terrified screams. The rafts are capsized like toys, bodies falling into his seas like stones.

Kai wants to rage too: he wants to save them all, but he can only save her.

**-o0o-**

“But since it falls unto my lot,” the sound pulls Bonnie from her sleep, her body sore and sick. he tries to recall where she was but all she can remember is a raging sea and sinking below cold waters.

“That I should rise and you should not,” someone sings. Who’s singing? she wonders. Where is she? She tries to recall if that nightmare scenario was real or not, but taking note of the sand scraping her bare skin and the stiff state of her previously waterlogged clothes, she thinks real.

The heat of the was sun not bearing down on her as harshly as it should, but she was warm. She rolls over onto her side and opens her eyes.

“I'll gently rise and softly call. Goodnight and joy be with you all.”

Bonnie is lying in the shade of a large rock, one that protects her from the waves of the high tide. She sits up. Atop her stony shield, a man sits perched. One of his legs is extended out and the other is bent, the knee holding up his arm. His song has reached it’s end and at her movement, he turns to face her. The man eyes her apathetically.

“You’re awake. Finally,” he pushes himself down from the stone and lands before her. Bonnie warily scoots back, shakily getting to her own feet as well. She’s uncomfortable being so low to the ground while a tall, angry-looking man stands over her.

He’s abysmally handsome, pale skin glowing in the sun, and dark hair waving softly in the breeze. His face is scruffy, and eyes like the darkest blue-grey of the murky sea look her over briefly before darting to the rest of the beach. The man is tall and broad, long legs encased in swim shorts and green button down shirt thrown carelessly on his frame, undone. He looks like something off of a billboard and Bonnie braces herself because he must be the type of man used to smitten girls and she will not be another.

“Did you save me?” she asks. He nods, still looking out over the water. “Thank you, Mr. ?.”

The man scowls, turning back to her. “Malachai. If you were a friend, it would be Kai, but you’re just a silly little girl who took too long to wake up after swallowing some salt water.”

Bonnie’s temper flares and her eyes narrow. How incredibly rude. She’s even more glad than before that she had not allowed herself to become a simpering fool over his looks. What an ass. 

“All that time of mine you costed, you definitely can’t be a friend,” he continues, almost to himself, oblivious to her mounting irritation.  _ Malachai _ shakes his head. “Foolish girl, boarding a cursed ship and then summo-.”

“How dare you?” she snaps, interrupting him. “What the hell did I do to you?”

The glare he turns on her is so malicious that the witch steps back in fear. She can feel her magic rising up, ready to defend her if necessary, but Malachai merely sneers. “You’re utterly ignorant of everything you did wrong, aren’t you?”

He steps forward into her space and Bonnie tenses up, telling herself not to give any ground. The tall man coldly looks her up and down. “Word of advice, young miss? Don’t weep into the ocean. There’s magic there you don’t want to trifle with.”

Then he steps away and begins to shake off his open shirt. Bonnie’s eyes widen in embarrassment.

“What are you doing?” she snaps.

Malachai tosses a her dirty a look and then raises a brow. “Your good husband should be arriving shortly. Perhaps you ought to make yourself comely, so he doesn’t feel like it’s a wasted journey.”

The young witch frowns back at him, disturbed and offended. “How do you know I’m married?” She looks away when he starts undoing his swim trunks. His lack of any shame is unnatural, Bonnie thinks.

“You told me.”

She turns back to the man sharply, ignoring his nudity. “What? No, I didn-!” she’s cut off as he grabs her arm and begins towing her toward the sea.

Fear overcomes her. He’s going to murder her, she’s sure. Bash her head in with a rock and let the water wash away all the evidence.

“Let me go!” she screams, struggling. He scoops her up, tossing her over his shoulder easily.

“Nah. You need to cool down.”

“ _ Vatos _ ” she snarls. Nothing happens and he looks at her curiously before she’s suddenly up, in the air, higher than she thinks she should be. Much higher. Then there’s splashing, and water bubbles up over her head. She swallows some of the brine in a gasp before stopping herself. Heart racing, she kicks up, following the bubbles to the surface, where she takes a deep breath coughing. Bonnie looks around her, nervous.

Where was he?

On her second turn around, she notices something dark breach the surface of water farther out from the shore. Squinting at it, she sees it’s that seal, the same one from before, eyes dark and luminous and  _ directed right at her _ . Bonnie freezes but doesn’t turn away, keeping her eyes on it as she treads backward, praying she can get ashore before it decides what it wants to do to her. She wonders once more how such a creature ended up so far from its usual hunting grounds, how it seemed to be surviving so well in the warmer waters.

The seal -  _ roane _ , she remembers the captain calling it before his demise - yawns, revealing a wide mouth with sharp teeth. She remembers the swift way it had snatched up the baby dolphin, the amount of blood that filled the water and turned it murky. Her heart beats wildly.

Where the fuck is the freaking shoreline?

The roane disappears under the surface and Bonnie forgets any survival lessons she remembers about not fleeing from predators to avoid triggering a hunting response. The witch begins a desperate swim back to shore. Something brushes against her leg and with a yelp, she kicks at it, swimming hard. A deep sound, like a jackhammer, reverberates through the water, through her very body and Bonnie is once more sure she’s about to be killed.

“ _ Modus, _ ” she gurgles, aiming to toss it away with magic. Again, her magic fails her and she wonders what the hell is happening to her. Something grasps at one leg in a gentle clamp and Bonnie screams, kicking at it harder. The creature lets her go.

That crazy asshole. He must have seen the beast and thrown her out at it. If she gets safely to the beach, she’s going to curse him, her embarrassment at his apparent nudist streak be damned.

Something brushes by her once more, more solid this time and she feels wet, bristly fur along her skin. Finally,  _ finally _ , Bonnie can feel sand in her grasp and she starts clumsily clambering through it to get back to the relative safety inland. She refuses to look behind her, to see how close the roane has come. If she’s going to die, she doesn’t want to see death coming for her with a gaping maw.

But it doesn’t. She gets back on the wet sand and runs, encumbered by her soaked clothes, to the drier area. When she doesn’t hear anything behind her, she tosses a look over her shoulders and ceases movement. The water is calm, nothing but the gentle tide breaking against sand. Bonnie turns around to scan the horizon fully.

Spray blows up vertically followed by the top of a grey head, much closer to the beach than before. Bonnie swallows at the confirmation that it had been the gigantic roane swimming against her.

She looks wildly around her - the man, Malachai - was nowhere to be seen.

Turning back to the water, at the giant thing still watching her, her breath catches. It really was a beautiful creature, all sleek and dangerous and curious. It leans over, slipping into the water, one fin raised almost like in a wave before that too is gone and the water is once more incredibly calm.

Bonnie can finally breathe again.

**-o0o-**

Enzo and his older sister, Alexandra, do eventually show up, much to her surprise. By that time, Bonnie’s spelled herself clean and has meditated to the point where she can function again. She had purged any thoughts of strange, beautiful men and terrifying sea creatures with her calm and was trying to think of ways to send an S.O.S. when she hears Enzo's voice call her name.

“Bonnie, love, are you okay?” he grasps her shoulders and looks her over in concern. He has kind eyes, soft and warm, and if he had been someone she chose on her own, she could see herself coming to love him. 

“We heard about the shipwreck this morning: we’ve been searching all the coves and smaller islands the entire afternoon for survivors,” he tells her. From behind him, Bonnie can see Alex eyeing her suspiciously.

“You're the first one we found. Everywhere else, we only found the bodies that washed ashore,” Alexandra informs her. The woman’s eyes narrow and she tilts her head. “Oddly enough, the storm that wrecked the ship wasn't forecasted. It popped up out of thin air - almost as if by magic.”

Bonnie tenses at the insinuation, but Enzo snaps at his sister before she could.

“Oh, shut up, Alex. Keep your paranoid ramblings to yourself,” the St. John heir chastises his eldest sibling. He turns back to Bonnie with a warm smile. The witch wonders not for the first time if she could possibly learn to love him.

“Let's go home.”

**-o0o-**

The St. John manor was a huge estate, a castle known as The Armory. It would probably take Bonnie weeks to fully explore it, and even then her knowledge of the place would probably be cursory at best.

They enter through the west wing, where, Enzo tells her, is the wing the family resides. Alexandra disappears nearly as soon as they come through the doors, leaving the new spouses floundering as to how to interact. It’s a painful reminder of how poorly they know each other. They both fidget and Bonnie looks around at the decor while Enzo stares at the floor, seemingly bracing himself.

“Would you like a tour? Or do you want to rest?” he finally asks and Bonnie grasps at the opportunity to kill the awkwardness.

“Yes!” she smiles. She’s tired, but she still feels shaken, so her choice is easy. “Lead the way.”

He shows her around the rest of the residency area first, and Bonnie is unsurprised to find that housing unit was built facing the west to show their enemies, the “creatures of the night”, that the St. Johns welcomed the fight with open arms. Bonnie thinks it’s a pretentious ideation, but she says nothing, choosing instead to enjoy the beautiful antique decor and the luxuriant architecture instead. She  _ loves  _ the main hall, from the softly gilded crown molding and the domed roofed and the rosy stain glass that framed the edges of the windows and filtered in soft pink light to plush, overstuffed furniture and the modern amenities. It was a lovely, admittedly tasteful blend, even if it was overbearingly opulent.

He takes her through an interior courtyard, which Bonnie thinks may quickly become her favorite place, the garden well-landscaped and lush with blooms. It’s a shortcut to the other wings, the south and east wings composing the Armory while the north wing is Dalton St. John’s personal command center of the entire St. John enterprise, from the supernatural aspects to the mundane business. Bonnie can admit to being depressed despite her lack of interest.

The Armory is some weird amalgamation of museum, library and laboratories. Bonnie thinks it may be the most interesting part of the manor and makes careful note of the areas she can easily get access to and the areas she cannot. It would be foolish of her to ignore the chance to exploit a place so enriched with information.

Enzo’s information barrage slows to a halt when Bonnie’s stomach growls loudly. His eyebrows raise and he checks his watch.

“My apologies,” he tells her. ‘It seems I’ve kept us much longer than I thought. What do you think about getting a bite to eat?“

His teasing tone makes Bonnie’s lip quirk slightly. “I don’t think I’d protest.”

Dinner is just them until Yvette joins them and she turns out to be bubbly and far less severe than her older sister. She’s a traveler and she spends the meal entertaining the newlyweds with jokes and stories of her adventures. Virginia is apparently around Bonnie’s age, but she was at a performing arts school, which Yvette assures her is far less impressive than being one of the head emissaries and the acting magistrate of the judicial branch of the Bennett oligarchy. The praise makes Bonnie flush with both pride and unease. It’s unnerving that an enemy - former enemy - is so informed about Bonnie’s work position in her family. It wasn’t exactly public information.

After dinner, Enzo shows her to her room - he agrees that it’s a bit much for them to start living together right away - and when he’s gone, Bonnie finds herself on the large balcony, gazing out at the deceptively calm ocean.

A shiver runs through as she recalls the creatures that peaceful surface houses, unaware of the dark eyes that watch her at a distance. 

**-o0o-**

A long time ago, when Kai had been young, he’d swam to the sea witch’s cottage to barter for a soul. He’d just learned of their existence due to his work as guide for humans lost to the sea and, being who he was, he loathed the idea of someone having something he did not. He didn’t really care or think too deeply about what a soul was, only that he wanted one because he didn’t have one. The sea witch, Esther, was renowned for making bargains and casting powerful spells. Even back then, Kai had had an affinity for powerful women. 

Esther had been a beautiful woman, proud and tall with blonde hair that hung to her waist. She had just bore her husband’s second child and her body was still ripe with curves. She had immediately recognized Kai for what he was and tried to chase him away, but he had come daily until she finally gave in and demanded to know what he wanted so he would go.

When Kai had made his request for a soul, Esther had smiled sweetly and shaken her head.

“You get by giving, young prince,” she answered. “It’s the only way folk like you can get a soul.”

The roane hadn’t understood what the hell she meant and, instead of leaving like she asked, he kept coming back. Eventually her  _ go aways _ became pleas to stay. It didn’t take long until she grew plump with her third child, but at that point, Kai’s duties as a sea guardian became more arduous for all the wars that humans waged in his waters. She didn’t hold his increased absences against him. He protected the dead and Esther was pushed to the back of his mind.

Eventually, he had returned. She and her husband had had a whole brood of brats by then, but one in particular had stood out to him. Esther told Kai that his name was Niklaus.

They kept on their illicit affair until she did what all humans do and died. Neither of them ever told Niklaus the truth. For a long time Kai had longed to join her, but his problem remained - he had no soul. There was no afterlife for him. Instead, Kai had kept watch over all her children, until they had children of their own and died as well. He’d been friends with Nik at the end, although Nik had been suspicious about the un-aging man. On his deathbed, Nik pleaded to know the truth and Kai told him that he was born with a soul, and would know the truth in death. 

Nik had daughter he named Hope and Kai realizes that it was because his boy had always tried to cling to that.

His first love, if he could call it that, had gone as well as could be expected, nowhere near the other tragedies he’d heard his folk had gone through. Neither he nor Esther were willing to commit to each other fully. Still, the losses had made Kai cold. Every seduction he’d done after that had ended in bloodshed and Kai would drag the women’s souls to the very dregs of the sea, keeping them with him until they were no more. No human woman who could call herself his lover ever knew peace after the first one.

The other roanes didn’t like it or didn’t care. His twin, Josette, was always disapproving, but only because she feared that his bloody habit would eventually catch up to him. She didn’t care about the women, not like he did.

As he climbs up the path to Hope’s cabin, he contemplates what he is to do when the last of his human family is gone. His sweet girl, who is an old woman. She’s almost 105 now. His sweet girl, so eager for death to ease her brittle bones. Kai wishes he could cry.

Instead, he bustles into the cabin with gifts and kisses. He helps his granddaughter clean the shelves she couldn’t reach, cooks her a meal she had trouble making herself, and waits. He doesn’t return to the sea. Kai stays in his manskin for three nights and on the fourth day of his stay, he thinks Hope has gone incredibly quiet over the course of storytime.

He looks up from the fairytale he’s been reading her. Hope looks like she’s fallen asleep, the same way she used to do when she was a little girl.

She wasn’t sleeping.

He buries her in the wildflower field she used to love play in, the same one where Nik rested and places a willow sapling as her headstone. His sweet girl died on land, so he can’t give her soul safe passage to the afterlife, but Kai prays with every fiber of his being, that she goes somewhere lovely. Before he leaves, he stops at the larger willow that overlooks his son’s grave and tries to force himself to cry.

But he’s a selkie. He has no soul and no tears to give his family.

**-o0o-**

Life with the St. Johns isn’t terrible, but Bonnie is lonely. Her husband, despite his family’s dealings, is a kind man, but he also represents her loss of freedom and choice. Most of her time is spent exploring the halls of the Armory and perusing the archives there. It’s fascinating. It calls to mind her old history professor, and she thinks Alaric would probably die of happiness with all the information at hand.

They way the St. Johns recorded shared history throws her a little. To her, the events have always presented the family as humans spearheading a xenophobic movement in a realm they had no authority in. To the Bennetts, the St. Johns had been overstepping. But to the St. Johns’ they were protecting themselves.

In 1892, when Ellis Island opened up for new immigration, there was an influx of supernatural predation. While it was the work of the Bennett witches to maintain balance, the St. Johns found the work of the witches to be too impartial to fully protect the humans from supernatural death. “Balance” had always been a very nuanced thing - not only did it mean maintaining order amongst supernatural creatures, it also meant maintaining a careful scale between the human populace and the supernatural one - that sometimes lead to little epidemics of human death.

To the St. Johns, this wasn’t good enough. The Irishmen, descendents of British and Gual druids, stepped up to protect humans from their preternatural foes by forming the Armory, leading to over a century-long feud between the them and the Bennett witches.

Of course, from Bonnie’s perspective - biased by the Bennett viewpoint, no doubt - the St. Johns’ overzealous crusade against all supernatural creatures was detrimental in and of itself, despite the good intentions it stemmed from. The slaughters done by the St. Johns left such power gaps in the magical grid that Bennett witches had scrambled to bridge them before the backflows could start damaging human hubs. Overall, it was a mess.

But reading through the St. John historical archives left Bonnie a bit more soft-hearted to her once enemies. They were only doing their best to do the right thing and it echoed the Bennett motto of upholding balance and justice so much that she couldn’t really condescend. It gave her some hope. She didn’t really know the future, if her marriage with Enzo would work like they hoped it would. Bonnie really hoped nothing messed up this fragile peace.

**-o0o-**

“There is a fair maid in the town.”

At first, Bonnie starts at the sound of the song, having grown used to wandering the shores alone. She thinks perhaps she has begun to dream up some company. Her mounting loneliness in this place is driving her to insanity.

“That sorely has my heart beguiled,” when Bonnie hears the low melody ring out again, she immediately begins to follow it. It guides her climb down the ladder rungs of the dock, until she is beneath the creaking wood, sand padding her steps.

“Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips, I own she has my heart enthralled. So fill to me the parting glass,” Kai - Malachai, she corrects herself, remembering how he cheekily told her that she was not his friend - sits at the very edge of the low tide, the water reaching for his bare toes, but unable to stretch quite that far. He grows quiet at her soft approach.

“And how does married life treat you, little urchin?” he calls. Bonnie scowls at the awful nickname. She has not seen him in days, but has still been quite incapable of banishing him from her mind, but the moment she is in his presence, she wants to trap him in a stranglehold and thrash him once more. She remembers their last encounter and how he left her to die at the fangs of that sea beast. How ironic it is that the person she’s been almost aching to see again is a person she vehemently can’t stand.

“It’s great,” she informs him primly. “Maybe I should inform my husband about the strange man on our property.”

He fakes a shudder at the threat. “Oh no, please don’t,” he responds. He hasn’t bothered to turn around and look at her as he addresses her and, for some reason, this infuriates Bonnie. “He might try to take the opportunity to free himself of such a prickly and poison-tongued little thing such as yourself by giving you to me.”

Bonnie kicks sand at his bare back, prompting him to laugh. He stands up suddenly, swiping the particles off his skin and finally turns to look at her.

He is still as handsome as he was the last time she laid eyes on him, but it is once more almost a shock to her system. She remembers his face and it’s appealing lines, but she couldn’t quite remember the mischievous glint in his laughing eyes or the way his skin glowed like moonlight or the thick pivots of muscle on his body that rippled beneath it. Faced with it all once more, she feels wanting and uncomfortable.

Malachai gets in close, making her stumble back slightly, but he grips her arms. His curious face peers closely at her own. His eyes are luminous things too, intensely blue one moment and big puppy-like black the next.

“Are you nervous?” he asks her, his voice set deep and murmuring. It does things to the witch.

She rips herself from his grip.

“No,” she frowns. “I just don’t like when other people get in my personal bubble like that.”

The man chuckles. “Well, my apologies. Would you like to swim with me again?” He gestures towards the cold surf. “I would promise to keep you warm, but I don’t want to invade your space again.”

Teasing her again. At least it wasn’t as mean spirited as last time. Bonnie rolls her eyes, wanting to hit him.

“I’m less worried about staying warm than I am about you drowning me.” Kai clutches at his chest dramatically.

“You wound me, urchin.” He reaches out for her, arm outstretched just by her head and Bonnie tenses up as he - once more, the liar - breaches her space again. But he doesn’t linger long, snagging a large pelt hanging from a nail on the pillar behind her. The fur is soft as it drags over her shoulder briefly and Bonnie shudders at the silken sensation.

“Did you see that leopard seal in the water last time?” Bonnie asks. She has to know, needs to confirm whether or not he’d thrown her into the depths and left her with the intention of letting that thing kill her.

Malachai says nothing and sweeps the fur over himself like a cape and begins to unbuckle his jeans, not bothering to step back or turn away from her. Bonnie has to look up at the rough wood of the dock’s underbelly when he drops them to his ankles, immediately bare except for the pelt of fur waving over his body like a cloak. The brief glimpse of him she caught made for an oddly arousing image.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come for a swim with me?” he queries gently, still ignoring her earlier question.

“I don’t trust you,” she whispers back. Malachai grins.

“So prickly.”

Then he is away from her and she sees him splash into the waves. In the next instant, his wet head resurfaces and he looks at her once more before a wave washes over him. Concerned, Bonnie makes her way to the shoreline, looking out over the rippling water. Seconds later, a dark figure breaks the water’s surface.

It’s the same huge seal from before, the roane. The one that escorted her ship and the one that appeared and taunted her the last time Kai -  _ Malachai  _ \- had disappeared. Her heart begins to pound. 

She stands there at the break of the water, the wet sand squishing between her toes. The roane stares at her and Bonnie stares back until finally, the creature flips over, its glowing belly reflecting in the moonlight, and fades into the sea.

**-o0o-**

There’s a party or something going on at the St. John manor. Kai thinks it has something to do with the little urchin’s nuptials with the St. John heir and Kai invites himself once he has ferried off the last of the lost souls from the  _ Dearest Ophelia _ wreck. Bonnie was the only soul left he had to move. The roane wonders if the merriment is as welcoming to the woman as she liked to pretend or if she felt more ostracized than ever. He hasn’t bothered to remove his pelt this time, swimming under the docks and boating grottos around the castle as watches the party-goers for a glimpse of the prickly one.

He could lure one of them, some other sad-eyed woman with dreams of freedom. And he could give that to her. But his summons shackles him. Kai’s lured in himself, by only one of them, a green-eyed, soft-cheeked, and poison-tongued little  _ witch _ . How he dreads the idea of taking another witch to bed. They were a dangerous sort of feminine.

Something prickles at Kai, catching his attention and he follows the tug. The witch is has stepped out onto the long, balcony, her lovely scarlet evening gown a bit too revealing for the sea air, but she seems unaffected by the slight chill. She grips the stone railing, leaning over it slightly as she peers down at the water. It’s so reminiscent of the night she summoned him that he shudders.

Kai swims closer, his head breaching the water’s surface. He lets his pelt part, falling down enough to reveal his manskin. Bonnie’s stare is fixated intently on the water and he considers swimming closer to reveal himself to her seeking eyes. But he contents himself to watch her, both resistant to and tempted by the bond she forged between them with her tears.

Soon, very soon, he will have to commit himself to answering her summons.

**-o0o-**

A few more days pass and once more it’s like Bonnie is haunted by thoughts of him. Throughout the entirety of Enzo’s - and hers, she amends - reception, she’d felt ill at ease. Fevered and distracted and like dark eyes were resting heavily on her form, despite that she couldn’t see them. Despite that the idea was paranoid and ridiculous. The sickly feeling had left thoughts of the beautiful man - sea creature, she amends again - roaming in her head.

Kai even follows her into her dreams, giving her no peace of mind whatsoever. So she borrows the St. John library, perusing as many books as she can until she can find out what the hell that man really is. Bonnie becomes obsessive.

There are local stories, about women who go missing only for their bodies to be found days later, washed ashore by waves. It’s mentioned how these women always seem distant from their families, gazing out at the seas. There are newspaper clippings and fables going as far back as hundred-years. Always, always, there is mention of heartbreak.

Bonnie uses the information she finds out about him and his kind to fortify herself. His absence actually leaves her time to digest the information she gleans and build up her defenses. She won’t become his victim, she tells herself. She will not let herself fall into his snare.

Yet the thought of him won’t leave her alone.

**-o0o-**

The next time they meet, he’s the one stumbling across her as she hums the melody to his song. She’s casual like the last time, even though he can’t distract himself from the image of her decked out in finery on the castle’s balcony. He’s still wet, only having just hidden his skin and stolen some clothes when he hears the humming.

Bonnie is walking on the shore line, and for a moment, he thinks he hears the memory of Esther’s voice echoing in his head.

_ You get by giving. _

Kai probably hates her. If he had had any choice, he wouldn’t seduce her. He sees his death in her eyes. But the resentment doesn’t stop the lightness that fills his chest when she comes to view, something like what he once felt for the mother of his son, but so much more...more beguiling. Kai is imprisoned by the summons.

Kai wants to hate her.

Instead he comes up beside her, loops his arm through his. She starts and tries to pull away, but even Kai’s casual resistance is strong.

“What are you doing?” she huffs. Kai gives her a weird look.

“Walking?” he says, the  _ duh _ in his voice clear.

She’s quiet only briefly before her frustration seemingly overwhelms her and she taps at his arm. “Can’t you walk by yourself?”

“And deny myself the pleasure of your company, little urchin? I think not.”

Bonnie scoffs. “Don’t call me that. My name is Bonnie,  _ Malachai _ ,” her bitter emphasis on his name makes a grin flit across his face. She was still upset about his chastisement, as much as she tried to hide it.

“Oh, do you want to be my friend that badly, little urchin? I didn’t realize.”

Bonnie answers him with a scowl and by roughly jerking her arm from his. She picks up her pace, trying to get away from him, but Kai’s long legs easily keep up with her quickened step. The roane smiles at her churlishness.

“Tell you what? I’ll call you Bonnie if you call me Kai. Until then, you’re an urchin.”

Green eyes glance at him askance. “Are  _ you _ that desperate for my friendship?” she challenges.

Kai laughs. “No. I don’t want to be your friend,” he answers honestly. Bonnie’s brow crumples and she sighs, put-off and annoyed.

“Then what do you want with me? Go away.”

This time his arm casually goes over her shoulder, his weight slowing her again. “Afraid I cannot,” he laments. The witch stops short and whirls to face him, knocking his arm from her frame.

“Why not?” she grits. Her eyes are luminous things, the dark green clear and radiant against her skin. He wants to press his kisses to their fluttering lids. He wants to pop them out of her poisonous skull.

Instead, he pushes her dark curls behind her ear and smiles. “Walk with me and I’ll tell you.”

Those malachite orbs narrow. She shakes her head. “I know what you are, Mr. Roane. You can’t trick me.”

Kai’s not quite surprised. “Oh, is that so, Mrs. Witch. Luckily for you, I’m no good at deception.”

She frowns. “I won’t give you what you want.”

“All I want is to walk with you, urchin. No need to be so prickly.”

Bonnie stares at him, eyes roving over his face. A pink tongue darts from the cavern of her mouth to wet her lips and she looks around them. The isle is scarcely populated, more sandy beaches and rolling green grass and sharp grey rocks than people. There is still some distance to go before Bonnie reaches the nearest fishing village and she’s already come some way from the St. John manor. If Kai wanted, he could drag kicking and screaming to depths of his home and it would be but one other tragic drowning.

But if she’s going to be his last seduction, he’s going to make it count.

“C’mon, little urchin” he teases. He holds out his open hand, a symbol of her choice. “I promise you’ll like where I take you.”

Bonnie snorts, but she’s as much a victim of her summons as he is. She seems to watch, almost helplessly, as her hand rises and grasps his. Her grip is tight.


End file.
